Category Archives: Wine review

Wine review – Long Rail Gully, Villa Maria, Jim Barry

4 October 2015Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Long Rail Gully Canberra District Pinot Noir 2014 $31.50–$35
Cool Canberra isn’t quite cool enough to make pinot noir to equal Australia’s best. I suspect in the long run the finest pinots in our broader region will come from higher, cooler Tumbarumba. Indeed, Canberra vignerons already source pinot and chardonnay from there. However, Canberra makes very good, if not cutting edge, pinot from several sites, including Long Rail Gully of Murrumbateman. A medium bodied style, it offers pinot’s vibrant red-fruits varietal aromas and flavours on a smooth-textured, dry palate. The finish is soft and dry, with just a hint of pinot’s more savoury flavour pushing through the primary fruit.

Villa Maria Hawkes Bay NZ Merlot 2013 $17–$20
In 1984, on my first retail buying trip to New Zealand, Marlborough’s vineyards were barely a decade old and the world new nothing of its irresistible sauvignon blanc. Auckland remained the headquarters for most wine companies. And the best reds I tasted were at Hawkes Bay, on the North Island. The most impressive of all came from John Buck’s Te Mata estate and Vidal, owned by Villa Maria proprietor George Fistonich. Fistonich, later knighted for services to the industry, still makes exciting reds from Hawkes Bay, including this keenly priced, fragrant, tasty merlot, with distinctive firm but gentle tannins.

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2015 $13.75–$18
As a late ripening variety, riesling generally hunkers down during Clare Valley’s summer heat before developing delicate varietal flavour in the cool autumn. In the rollercoaster 2015 vintage, Jim Barry’s wine from Watervale, southern Clare, shows full body and strong flavours, while retaining delicacy and distinctive lime-like character. The full body perhaps comes from a February heat wave that “resulted in a historical event that saw our riesling, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon all ripening at the same time”, writes Peter Barry. The February heat wave that brought on the ripening arrived after torrential rain and the coolest January in 23 years.

Wine review – Vickery, Tar and Roses, Balnaves, Xanadu, Bream Creek, and Taittinger

30 September 2015People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Vickery Watervale Riesling 2015
Brazel, Castine and Koerner vineyards, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
$19–$23
This beautiful riesling is a collaboration between riesling master John Vickery (first vintage 1951) and Barossa based Phil Lehmann, winemaker for the WD Wine group, owners of Hesketh Wines, St John’s Road and Parker Coonawarra Estate. Vickery’s involvement extended from fruit selection to “the final classification, where only the very best components were selected by Phil and John for the finalised wine”, writes their partner Jonathon Hesketh. Vickery 2015 is full-bodied style at 13 per cent alcohol. But at the same time it’s refined and delicate, with the juicy, irresistible, lime-like varietal flavours unique to this Clare Valley sub-region. What a great bargain it is.

Tar and Roses Sangiovese 2014
Heathcote, Victoria
$20.89–$24
Italy’s sangiovese grape makes an enormously wide range of styles in Australia, depending on clone, growing climate and winemaking approach. Don Lewis and Narelle King source their sangiovese from Victoria’s warm Heathcote region. These grapes have, “consistently given us a rich, full style that we like, always highlighted by assertive tannins, true to the variety”, they write. The medium coloured 2014 starts with bright and vibrant, sour-cherry-like varietal flavour. However, very strong tannins wash in through the fruit, giving a grippy, savoury and very dry finish.

Balnaves “The Blend” 2013
Balnaves vineyards, Coonawarra, South Australia
$19–$20
“The Blend” combines merlot (52 per cent), cabernet sauvignon (46 per cent), and a splash of petite verdot from several Balnaves family vineyards. The wine provides a contrast to the similarly priced, prettier, cabernet from Xanadu, also reviewed today. The chocolate-like, earthy richness of merlot leads the blend, which reveals both the ripe-berry character of Coonawarra and deeper, more savoury flavours, backed by quite firm, though gentle tannins.

Xanadu Next of Kin Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Margaret River and Frankland River, Western Australia
$15–$18
Xanadu’s early-drinking cabernet comes principally from the company’s vineyards at Walcliffe, Margaret River, “supplemented with a small portion (13%) of cabernet selected from a mature vineyard in the Frankland River region”, writes winemaker Glen Goodall. The medium-bodied red shows an aromatic, floral side of cabernet. The palate reflects the aroma, and throws in a mint-like seasoning with the fruit, some spice from oak maturation and the variety’s fairly astringent, drying tannins.

Bream Creek Pinot Noir 2011
Bream Creek Vineyard, Marion Bay, Tasmania
$34
The beautifully sited Bream Creek vineyards rolls down a mild slope, giving visitors panoramic views east to Marion’s Bay and Maria Island. The cool site, on Tasmania’s lower east coast, was planted to vines in 1974 and purchased by one of the state’s best-known viticulturists, Fred Peacock, in 1990. Peacock’s 2011 pinot reveals the great purity and finesse of the variety grown at this latitude. Bright, cherry-like varietal aroma and flavour underpin a juicy, fine and elegant red, of silky texture and lingering, dry finish. The wine looks very young at four years, with barely a sign yet of the gamier pinot flavours likely to emerge in the years ahead.

Champagne Taittinger 2008
Champagne, France
$110–$160
There’s sparkling wine and there’s Champagne – the real thing from France’s Champagne region. But the latter isn’t always better than the former. Indeed, too many undistinguished wines bear the prestigious Champagne label. However, really good Champagne, like Taittinger 2008, still sets the world standard. In this instance a 50:50 blend of chardonnay and pinot noir from top-ranking Champagne vineyards forms the base of a remarkably intense, fine, vigorous wine. Completing the picture is six years’ ageing on yeast lees in bottle – the magic bit that gives Champagne so much more flavour and structural dimension than the base wine alone could give.

Wine review – Bremerton, Tar and Roses, West Cape Howe

27 September 2015Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bremerton Special Release Langhorne Creek Mourvedre 2013 $24
Sisters Rebecca and Lucy Willson make and market a range of mainstream wines as well as little gems like this mourvedre. The variety, originally from France’s Rhone Valley, generally appears as the minor partner in blends with shiraz and grenache. However, several producers, including the Willsons, make stand-alone versions, sometimes sold under the alternative name “mataro” or, in one instance, under its Spanish moniker “monastrell”. Bremerton’s wine shows a highly fragrant, medium-bodied side of mourvedre, featuring slurpy, red-currant-like fruit flavour and fine but assertive tannins.

Tar and Roses Victoria Pinot Grigio 2015 $16.20–$18
Winemakers Don Lewis and Narelle King give us a full-bore expression of this sometimes bland white variety. “Grigio” means grey, and indicates a grey-pink-bronze hue that sometimes finds its way (as it does in Tar and Roses) into the wine’s colour from the skins. The hint of pear in the aroma flows through to a richly textured palate in which the smooth, silky mouth-feel becomes the dominant feature. A hint of sweetness suits this textural style, but it’s offset by mildly grippy tannins and refreshing acidity.

West Cape Howe Perth Hills and Frankland Tempranillo 2013 $17–$20
West Cape Howe tempranillo combines fruit from the warmer Perth Hills and cooler Frankland region, located almost 400km south-east of Perth. Winemaker Gavin Berry says the Perth Hills component contributes earthy, savoury characters while the cool-grown Frankland component provides spicy and berry flavours. The combination gives a richly flavoured, medium-bodied red with deliciously vibrant red-berry-like flavours. Earthy, savoury flavours and assertive tannic finish, typical of the variety, complete a really attractive red wine. The 2013 vintage won gold medals in the Mount Barker and Royal Perth wine shows and a trophy in the latter.

Wine review – Freeman, Long Rail Gully, Vasse Felix, Yering Station and Ulithorne

23 September 2015Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Freeman Nebbiolo 2013
Freeman Altura vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
$35
Nebbiolo, the great red variety of Barolo and Barbaresco, Piedmont, provides more disappointments than triumphs. All too often intractable tannins swamp any initial pleasure in the soaring aroma and fruit sweetness. However, in Brian Freeman’s nebbiolo from Young, NSW, deep fruit flavours – reminiscent of dark, sour cherries – maintain a happy balance with the robust tannins. Indeed, this delicious consummation of opposing but equal forces creates an exciting flavour and textural sensation.

Long Rail Gully Riesling 2015
Long Rail Gully vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$22
The Parker family established the 22-hectare Long Rail Gully vineyard, one of Canberra’s largest, in 1998. They originally sold fruit to Hardys, but these days they make wine for their own and other labels, and continue selling grapes to several local winemakers. The consistently outstanding wines, made by Richard Parker, son of founders Garry and Barbara Parker, remain very modestly priced for whatever reason. The 2015 shows the floral-and-lemony aromatics of riesling, with a delicate and delicious palate, featuring lovely lime-like varietal flavour and lingering, ultra-fresh dry finish.

Vasse Felix Filius Chardonnay 2014
Vasse Felix vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia
$20.90–$28
Each vintage Vasse Felix winemaker Virginia Willcock makes many batches of chardonnay – all fermented and matured for nine-months in a mix of new and older oak barrels. She grades the barrels and from them blends three wines – the flagship Heytesbury ($75), a “quintessential” Margaret River chardonnay ($37) and “Filius” ($28), so-called son of quintessential. This is an exciting wine for the price as it captures the dazzling richness and freshness of Margaret River chardonnay, complete with the aroma, flavour and textural seasonings introduced by high-quality oak barrels. This is a brilliant chardonnay for the price.

Little Yering Shiraz Viognier 2013
Yarra Valley, Victoria
$18
Little Yering “spent its childhood in French oak”, declares the back label. I can report 12-months solitary confinement did nothing to restrain its youthful exuberance. Indeed the wine cartwheels pure, fruity enthusiasm across the palate, spreading the vibrant red-berry and spice deliciousness of Yarra Valley shiraz. Some of the vigour and thrust no doubt comes from the small portion of the white viognier in the blend; and the fine, spicy, soft tannins perhaps derive from oak as well as the fruit. It’s a pretty and yummy medium-bodied red to enjoy now.
Long Rail Gully Shiraz 2014
Long Rail Gully vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$25
Long Rail Gully 2014 sits towards the lighter-coloured end of Canberra’s medium-bodied shiraz spectrum. Consistent with the lighter colour, the aroma reveals a cool-grown, spicy, even peppery, side of shiraz. Spicy-pepper flavours carry through on the palate, in tandem with lively, fresh fruit flavours. Spicy, fine tannins cut through the fine, smooth palate giving length to the dry finish.

Ulithorne Immortelle 2013
Corsica, France
$34
Immortelle’s official French appellation, “Indication Geographique Protegee Ile de Beaute” translates to country wine of the island of beauty (Corsica). And, indeed this medium bodied red combines the local grape varieties minustellu, niellucciu and carcaghjolo neru with syrah. Ulithorne’s Rose Kentish made the wine in conjunction with Corsican friends. The result: a crimson-rimmed red of medium hue with delightful floral and herb-garden aroma. The bright, fresh, medium-bodied palate precisely reflects the aroma, combining sweet underlying fruit with herbs and fine, grippy, savoury tannins.

Wine review – Angove, Xanadu and Mount Langi Ghiran

20 September 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Angove Long Row Riesling 2015 $8–$11
Long Row riesling’s low price and drab label convey little of the very good wine quality. In the benign 2015 vintage the wine shows both the floral and citrus side of the riesling grape, in a delicious, round, juicy, drink-now, dry style. It comes from Angove’s Nanya vineyard on the hot stretches of the Murray River. While this is hardly a textbook site for the riesling grape, the family knows how to coax the best out of those vines, planted by Tom Angove back in the early 1970s.

Xanadu Fusion Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 $18.05–$20
A spin-off of all the top-end cabernet coming out of Margaret River, is the emergence of high quality drink-now versions at more modest prices. Xanadu, maker of a couple of seriously good cabernets, now offers Fusion – a blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, petit verdot and merlot. It’s a lot of wine for around $20 and really good representative of the elegant Margaret River style. The emphasis is on bright, fresh, ripe, berry-like flavours, with the minty and herbal notes typical of cabernet-related varieties. Fine tannins give the wine proper cabernet structure, but in an approachable drink-now style.

Mount Langhi Ghiran The Divide Grampians Shiraz 2013 $16
The Rathbone Wine Group’s Mount Langhi Ghiran specialises in the unique, peppery, savoury shirazes of Victoria’s Grampians region. In the best vintages, its flagship, The Langi Shiraz ($110), equals any red made in Australia, in its own idiosyncratic style. The more affordable Billi Bill Shiraz ($17) and Cliff Edge ($25) provide variations on the regional theme. And now “The Divide” shiraz, provides more good drinking – and evidence of the power Woolworths holds over such a small, but significant Victorian brand. This fruity, silky, savoury, spicy shiraz is available at Woolworths-owned Dan Murphys and Mount Langhi Ghiran cellar door.

Wine review – Grosset, Yarrh, McKellar Ridge, Tselepos, Windowrie and Hay Shed Hill

16 September 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 2015
Grosset Polish Hill vineyard, Clare Valley, South Australia
$55
Geoffrey Grosset’s thirty-fifth Polish Hill riesling harvest arrived early. The vintage, “Was mild and early. Starting February 8^th following a very mild December and even cooler than average January, vintage was not only the most compressed, but also the earliest in thirty-five years”, writes Grosset. The cool season produced small, thick-skinned berries, yielding an equivalent of two bottles per vine, he says. Those small berries produced a riesling of extraordinary concentration, but in the most delicate, refined way imaginable – characteristics suggested by the lovely aroma and confirmed by the powerful, fine, luscious, absolutely bone-dry palate. This is as good as Australian riesling gets at present – though Tasmania may one day throw down a challenge, albeit in a different style.

Yarrh Sangiovese 2013
Yarrh vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$27
Neil McGregor and Fiona Wholohan planted Yarrh’s first sangiovese in 2001 and in 2004 made their first wine from it. The success of the variety, prompted them to graft over another half-hectare, which is due to come into production in 2016. Wholohan makes the wines to a consistent medium-bodied, savoury style with the body rising or falling in line with vintage conditions. The almost sold out 2012, for example, shows the lighter body of a cool year; while the 2013 shows the extra depth and richness of a great season. Wholohan aptly describes the fruit flavour as sour-cherry-like. This is cut with firm, tight, earthy tannins, reminiscent of the lighter wines of Tuscany’s Chianti region, the home of sangiovese.

McKellar Ridge Riesling 2015
Briar Hill vineyard, Wallaroo, Canberra District, NSW
$25
Brian and Janet Johnston make McKellar Ridge riesling from fruit grown on Phil and Judy Thompson’s Briar Hill vineyard at Wallaroo. Their 2015 vintage earned the top gold medal in its class before going on to win trophies as best riesling and best boutique wine in the NSW Small Winemakers Show. The wine shows the lemony thrust and bite of very young Canberra riesling, softened by a very small dose of residual grape sugar, which gives flesh but not sweetness to the palate.

Tselepos Agiorgitiko 2013
Nemea, Peloponnisos, Greece
$33
Melbourne’s Hellenic Republic restaurant (434 Lygon Street, East Brunswick) offers an all-Greek wine list, including many of their own imports. Having little experience of Greek wine, we deferred to the sommelier, who steered us to this enjoyable red, made from the agiorgitiko grape, grown at Nemea, in the northwest Peloponnisos. Medium bodied and fragrant, it offered bright, ripe-berry flavours on an initially supple palate, cut with rustic, savoury tannins that worked well with the food. For stockists contact cclarkson@dejavuwines.com.au.

Windowrie The Mill Verdelho 2015
Central Ranges, NSW
$17–$18
In the late eighties and early nineties, The O’Dea family planted hundreds of hectares of their extensive Windowrie property to vines. Initially, they sold to other makers but now make significant volumes on site for their own label. Fruit sourcing now extends along the large Central Ranges zones, and includes this appealing dry white, made from Madeira’s verdelho grape. A fairly full-bodied style, it offers pleasantly tart, flavours, reminiscent of melon-rind. These give a twist to the dry finish and make the wine distinct from our more familiar varieties.

Hay Shed Hill Cabernet Merlot 2013
Hay Shed Hill vineyard, Wilyabrup, Margaret River, Western Australia
$20–$22
In this reasonably priced red, winemaker Michael Kerrigan gives us the varietal purity and power of Margaret River cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The fruit wells up richly on the palate, yielding cabernet’s cassis, merlot’s chocolate and the minty-leafy character seen in both varieties. Well-balanced oak helps fill out the generous mid palate and contributes to the firm, dry finish we expect of these varieties.

Wine review – A.C. Byrne and Co, Guigal and Paringa Estate

13 September 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

A.C. Byrne and Co McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 $9.99
German grocer Aldi continues to ginger up the Australian retail wine market with perfectly targeted private labels, including the AC Byrne and Co brand. The company doesn’t bother with the expensive, pointy tip of the wine pyramid. Instead, it supplies the fat middle bit where most wine drinkers spend their money. Aldi buying director, Jason Bowyer, shows a nose for quality in big value wines like this McLaren Vale shiraz. For $10 you get a rich, fruity and smooth expression of one of Australia’s most satisfying regional-varietal combinations.

Crozes-Hermitage (E. Guigal) 2010 $34–$38
Melbourne’s impressive Cookie bar (Curtin Building, 252 Swanston Street) offers Guigal’s maturing red by the glass – a wonderful, warming treat on a cold winter’s day. It’s also available at the River Restaurant, Moruya, and in some retail outlets. Its continuing availability, and low price for a wine of this age and provenance, point to a distributor clearance of slow-moving stock. It delivers the medium-bodied, warm, earthy, savoury flavours of shiraz grown in this northern Rhone Valley appellation. Wines of Crozes-Hermitage sit below those of Cote-Rotie and Hermitage in the northern Rhone pecking order.

Paringa Estate Peninsula Range Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay 2013 $25
Leading Mornington producer, Paringa Estate, offers three chardonnays: Peninsula Range 2013 ($25), Estate 2013 ($35) and The Paringa 2011 ($50). The wines reveal varying hues of the estate’s chardonnay and winemaking, with discernible quality increases, albeit not directly in proportion to price. The entry-level wine therefore provides wonderful drinking and an impressive display of modern Australian chardonnay making. Fermentation and maturation in oak barrels added texture and interest to the dazzling-fresh, cool-grown, citrusy varietal flavours.

Tempranillo from six top Aussie winemakers

9 September 2015People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Mayford Tempranillo 2014
Mayford vineyard, Porepunkah, Alpine Valleys, Victoria
$38
Though planted throughout Australia and used by about 340 winemakers, Spain’s tempranillo remains a niche variety. Our vignerons harvest just four to five thousand tonnes of it annually, depending on vintage conditions – about one tenth the volume of pinot noir, or one hundredth of shiraz. However, it makes instantly appealing red wines in a spectrum of styles. At a recent “Tempra Neo” tasting featuring six producers, Mayford stood out as the most complete red. Its ripe blueberry-like varietal flavour came packaged in strong, savoury tannins that gave a chewy, satisfying richness to the palate and an assertive, dry finish.

Mount Majura Vineyard Tempranillo 2014
Mount Majura, Canberra District, ACT
$45
After the deeper, darker 2013 vintage, Mount Majura 2014 reveals a fragrant, fruity side of tempranillo. The aroma and palate both suggest ripe, red berry characters, which push through the variety’s distinctive firm but fine tannins. The bright fruit character gives the wine tremendous drink-now appeal – though the tannins and underlying savouriness should see it evolve for three or four years in bottle. At the “tempra neo” event promoting the variety, winemaker Frank van de Loo said “tempranillo is very sensitive to site and vintage”. The latter explains the notable variation between last year’s wine and the new release.

La Linea Tempranillo 2014
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
$27
David Le Mire and Peter Leske source tempranillo from a range of sites in the Adelaide Hills. In 2014 their blend offers a notably aromatic, lively, buoyant expression of the variety. Intense, delicious fruit flavours, combined with fresh acidity and fine-boned tannins, make this elegant, medium-bodied wine very appealing now. Tempranillo’s savoury side might show through with bottle age. But I doubt it will ever appeal more than it does now in its fresh and fruity youth.

Running With Bulls Tempranillo 2014
Barossa Valley, South Australia
$18–$24
The Yalumba group’s Running with Bulls rated as the bargain of 16 Spanish and Australian tempranillos tasted at a “tempra neo” event in late August. Yalumba began working with the variety in 1999 and until recently produced two tempranillos under this label – one from the Barossa, the other from Wrattonbully, hundreds of kilometres to the south, near Coonawarra. The new release shows a pleasingly ripe, fleshy face of the variety with an abundance of caressing, soft tannins, typical of the Barossa Valley.

Gemtree “Luna Temprana” Tempranillo 2015
McLaren Vale, South Australia
$18
Mike Brown marches to the biodynamic calendar and writes, “We called the wine Luna Temprana as “temprana” is youthful and early and “luna” denotes the wine’s growth via the lunar cycle”. He makes specifically for early drinking, meaning it’s all about fruit, unadorned by winemaking inputs. The fresh, musk-like fruit really sings at present, though the variety’s savoury tannins give a solid grip to the finish.

Tar and Roses Tempranillo 2014
Heathcote, Victoria
$19–$24
Don Lewis and Narelle King write, “Our aim is to preserve fruit characters through the production process to the finished wine. It’s these fruit characters that underpin our style”. However, the pair like to build on the fruit flavour, particularly through maturation in oak barrels. They preserve fruit character by fermenting with selected yeast strains, adjusting acidity and controlling temperatures of the ferment and the cap of skins. The result is a solid tempranillo combining pure fruit character with the flavour and tannins of oak. The currently noticeable oak flavours will likely submerge into the wine after a little bottle age.

Wine review – Tim Gramp, Angoves and Bloodwood

6 September 2015Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Tim Gramp Watervale Riesling 2015 $20–$22
Sydney, late August, and winter taking time out, we turned to riesling. At East Restaurant, east Circular Quay, Mesh Eden Valley 2013 ($25 retail) appealed for its intense, maturing flavours and fresh acidity. But with spring in the air, Tim Gramp Watervale 2015 thrilled even more with the searing yet delicate, lime-like vitality unique to riesling from this Clare Valley sub-region. The very finest of these Watervale rieslings retain lime-like flavours into mellow old age. But there’s a special beauty to these pure, vivid, very young wines.

Angoves Long Row Shiraz 2014 $9–$11
Australia’s tradition of cross-regional blending gives our larger wine makers great flexibility to maximise wine quality at any given price point. In this instance, Angoves combine more powerful shiraz from generally lower yielding vines in McLaren Vale with simpler wine from higher yielding vineyards in the Riverland. For around $10 a bottle you get a decent medium bodied dry red with ripe, vibrant varietal flavour, a juicy mid-palate and soft, drink-now tannins.

Bloodwood Orange District Cabernet Franc 2014 $30
Perhaps best known as a blending variety in France’s Bordeaux region, or in its own right along the Loire Valley, cabernet franc arrived in many Australian vineyards misidentified as merlot. In Orange, Stephen and Rhonda Doyle welcomed theirs as a much loved, albeit unplanned child – and even extended plantings when, as an early ripener, it flourished in Orange’s cool climate. From it the Doyles make a distinctive, medium-bodied red. Deep, fragrant and crimson-rimmed, it offers cherry- and –chocolate-like flavours layered with strong but fine, drying tannins.

Wine review – Parker Coonawarra Estate, Yalumba Galway, Giant Steps, Curly Flat, Scuttlebutt and Wagner Steeple

2 September 2015People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Parker Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
North-western Coonawarra, South Australia
$18.90–$24
Our wine of the week earned its place for sheer flavour, value and fidelity to the Coonawarra regional style. The winery now belongs to WD Wines, an energetic business that also owns the Hesketh and St John’s Road brands. Jonathon Hesketh and Phil Lehmann, drive the businesses – Hesketh in charge of marketing and Lehmann making wine. In the excellent 2013 vintage, Lehmann captured the ripe, full flavours of the cabernet grape, complete with the mid-palate flesh that can be missing in cooler years. His approach for this wine, made to meet a particular retail price, emphasises Coonawarra’s cassis-like varietal flavours (OK, there’s a touch of mint), with sufficient tannin to give true cabernet structure and authority. This is a lot of wine for the price.

Yalumba Galway Vintage Shiraz 2013
Barossa Valley, South Australia
$10.45–$18
Yalumba Galway “Claret” once counted among Australia’s great reds, built for the cellar. It raised important eyebrows, including the only ones that counted in 1965, when, at an Adelaide lunch, Prime Minister Bob Menzies declared the 1961 vintage to be, “the finest Australian red I have ever tasted”. But time, markets and marketing diluted the Galway name. Today it stands in the crowded drink-now segment, offering generous and loveable – if not eyebrow-raising – quality. Galway 2013 delivers the appealing flavours of Barossa shiraz – ripe and generous fruit, with soft, easy tannins.

Giant Steps Tarraford Vineyard Chardonnay 2014
Tarraford vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
$45
Pulp Kitchen on a cold Saturday night, and the rich, earthy food calls for, and gets, equivalent wines: a taut, elegant, savoury 2007 pinot noir from the great Burgundy vineyard, Clos de la Roche, made by the highly regarded Olivier Bernstein. However, we begin with an outstanding Australian chardonnay, inspired by Burgundy’s originals. From a cooler Yarra sub-region, it reveals all the brightness and intensity of modern Australian chardonnay, boosted by the delicious inputs of barrel fermentation and maturation.

Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2013
Curly Flat vineyard, Macedon Ranges, Victoria
$50–$56
Curly Flat’s pinots invariably rate well on release and develop nicely with bottle age, and little wonder given Phillip Moraghan’s attention to detail in the vineyard and winery. Tasted alongside the leaner, savoury, maturing, richly textured 2011, the new 2013 appeared ripe, fruity and soft. But with air and patience over a few days of tasting, the wine’s deeper, savoury flavours emerged, along with the silky texture and substantial tannins essential in top-shelf pinots. Right now, the 2011 provides more satisfying, mature drinking, but the 2013 has great potential, which it should begin to reveal in as little as one year.

Skuttlebutt Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2015
Margaret River, Western Australia
$16.15–$18
The back label gushes fruity descriptors: citrus zest, passionfruit, gooseberry, ripe melon and ripe peach flesh, with a sting of “savoury nettles” thrown in. On the other hand, we can settle for “very fruity”, because it is, with the unbeatable freshness of a young wine, barely away from the bosom of mother vine. Suck it down joyously now. You can never get closer to the freshly fermented grape than this.

Wagner Stempel Riesling Trocken Gutswein 2014
Siefersheim, West Rheinhessen, Germany
$36
Winemaker Daniel Wagner writes, “There is no doubt this is a vintage of very high quality, which, however, could only be brought in at the cost of tremendous losses through selection”. Wagner’s comment if anything understates his attention to detail in the vineyards, which ultimately produces such racy, delicate, deeply flavoured rieslings. Though full bodied for riesling, Wagner’s 2014 remains delicate, with apple-like flavours, cut through with thrilling acidity. The combination of intense flavour, finesse and high acidity suggest good cellaring prospects – if you can resist the urge to drink it now.